Westside Story

I went to the Westside Democrats debate last night and was reminded of how much I really hate the westside.

Not sure if I've mentioned that before.

I used this image because I thought it would be funny to use a gangsta-ass photo for the most white-bread part of El Paso.

Before I go on, can I just say that this November election for city reps is complete bullshit. I hope they move it back to may - or at least make them partisan.

But, any who....

I was shocked that District 6 candidate Eric Stoltz wasn't there. As much as that guy talks about the westside I figured he'd be there in that gray suit and green and blue tie.

Some quick observations about the debate are in order.

First, lets talk about the difference between the campaigns west of the spaghetti bowl and those east of the spaghetti bowl.

The westside candidates from District 1 and District 8 seem to genuinely like one another. They are all friendly toward one another and none of them bad mouth one another. There's differences on policy to be sure, but they all seem to respect one another.

East of the spaghetti bowl, not so much. None of the candidates seem to like one another very much.

Second, lets talk about the quality of candidates. Normally city elections are the shallow end of the political gene pool. You have a high likelihood of getting weirdos, ankle-biters, at best some eccentric folk, sometimes people that are diagnosed with one or more mental illnesses.

I've been doing this a long time. There's not another blogger in town - hell there isn't even a reporter in town - that has talked to as many candidates as I have over the years. So take my assessment for whatever you think its worth, but I can tell you that the caliber of candidates in the D1 and D8 races was refreshingly strong.

District 1

Roni Frescas and I apparently disagree on every policy under the sun. Like we seriously don't agree on anything. But she came across as knowledgeable and made a solid case for her candidacy.

Carlos Corral is probably the candidate I agree with the most on policy. He's got a campaign full of rookies by his own admission but he is polished and uses multi-media whenever he can. He had a tablet running his commercial on a loop at the side table where the campaigns put their swag. I give him a little extra credit because he's on an island on most policy position.

Peter Svarzbein. Man he sure has come along way. He used to come across as a perpetual college student, usually late to things, sloppy, unprepared and in over his head. The knock on Peter has always been his lack of decisiveness and people usually figured his vote was dependent on who he spoke to last before the vote. He's grown into his role. He's more mature, much more confident, relaxed, and comfortable in his own skin. He played defense really well. Definitely wins the Most Improved Award. He looked and sounded like an incumbent city rep.

Rick Bonart - for me probably the biggest surprise of the night in that field. I was expecting him to come in pretty aggressive and throwing haymakers all over the place. Instead he was calm, steady, intellectual, and pretty relatable. What surprised me the most about him was the fact that I expected Duranguito to be every third word out of his mouth and it wasn't. He seemed pretty middle-of-the-road and reasonable about Duranguito. It was decidedly (and refreshingly) very un-Max Grossman.

District 8

Rich Wright was hands down Mr. Personality at the debate. He's a gifted speaker and is probably the candidate that is most-relaxed in front of a crowd. He had he best one-liners of the night. We disagree on the raise for members of council but Rich is obviously pretty up to speed on policy. And I'm not just saying that out of some blogger brotherhood thing either. He was impressive. So much so that one former City Rep said Rich Wright for Mayor, to which he replied, "thats in two years".

I think he was kidding.

Maybe.

Cissy Lizarraga is the incumbent and she had the BURN of the night. She spoke about stepping up to serve her community as the District 8 city rep and mentioned that not a single one of her opponents stepped up to run for the office and worse, not a single one of them voted in that election.

I didn't think that could possibly be true, so I checked it out. Turns out, she's right. None of the opponents voted.

I was surprised that she was reading from notes about her own background. I thought that was weird because talking about yourself if usually the easy part for most candidates. Its not hard to memorize your own life experiences, but maybe the notes were just to help her organize her thoughts.

Gregory Baine is a retired Colonel and businessman. He's the only Republican in the field. He spoke a lot about his military background but I wouldn't have known had he not said something. He doesn't have what we call in the military, command presence. Maybe I just think that because I saw him go off on former City Rep Lily Limón for some weird reason. His attack on her didn't make sense to me, aside from most of it being pretty inaccurate, but it just seemed really petty. So thats probably why didn't peg him for being a retired Field Grade Officer. It seemed beneath someone like that.

Also, we have a saying in the Army - although its more of an NCO thing as opposed, but its called "Attention to detail".

A squared-away NCO would've caught that spelling error.

For a Field Grade office I thought he'd be a stronger communicator. He's still a decent candidate, but I expected more out of him.

But the candidate that exceeded my expectations was Dylan Corbett. When you look at him or speak to him one-on-one, you don't expect him to be as dynamic of a speaker as he turned out to be. He's another candidate that I really don't agree with on policy, but I'll be damned if he doesn't make you think twice about things. He's really nice, maybe even a little shy when you talk to him alone. He's clearly up to speed on policy, but he's very disarming. Blue-eyed and brown-haired I was surprised when I heard him speak Spanish. I know, this is El Paso and it should never ever surprise anyone, but for whatever reason I was surprised.

If there is a run-off, I think he's the challenger most-likely to be in it. If he's in it, Cissy is gonna be in trouble.

But making a run-off for any candidate taking on an incumbent in this election cycle is a steep hill to climb.